Illy Ground Ground Espresso Medium Roast, 8.8oz (Pack of 2) Review
3 Comments on “Illy Ground Ground Espresso Medium Roast, 8.8oz (Pack of 2) Review”
60 of 64 people found the following review helpful
Excellent in its price range – no “burnt” aftertaste, January 3, 2004
By A Customer
Among coffees in this price range, I haven’t been able to find anything better. Illy is an italian brand and I am an italian who came to US 6 years ago: I claim my review does not have any shallow food-nationalism bias, but it might well be that I am influnced by my upbringing. This coffee is roasted much less than what americans are used to think as the “italian roast”; Illy calls it “medium roast”. To give you a benchmark, it is roasted less than ANY Starbucks coffee I tried so far. The roasting can be seen by comparing the color of the powder. This particular Illy is lighter in color and it is bit reddish – close to the color of cocoa poweder (I mean cocoa powder processed with alkali, of course). The roasting is key for me because I dislike any coffee which tastes of burnt — Illy does not. It’s flavor is marked enough to fully come through even when drank with milk in a 50% coffee 50% milk proportion. It actually still tastes of coffee in this proportions. I use it both with milk for caffe-latte and for espresso. I prepare it with a stove-top espresso machine, such as Bialetti (also sold on Amazon). This particular tin I am reviewing (the one with the silver lid) contains ground coffee. It is grounded having in mind stove-top esperesso machine, and electric espresso machines and it is much finer than grounds for dripping machines. As you probably know, coffee should be drank very soon after roasting. In general this is true. Illy is one of the leaders in vacuum paking, so the shelf-life of its coffee is very long. The metal can is not just for beauty, it does keep the air out better then bags. Still, you don’t want to buy it from a merchant who had it on its shelf for one year. All in all, there is better coffee around, but I can’t find any better for this price either for delivery on the internet or from small roasters who roast their own coffee in the New Haven area.
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I’m comparing this to Lavazza Cafe Espresso and Lavazza In Blue. I’m not a coffee guru…I can’t really go in depth about the flavors, aromas, depth, etc….I can tell you that with Lavazza Cafe Espresso i get a palpable caffeine jolt from a 14 gram double espresso extracted over 20 seconds on my gaggia. Not really fond of the taste. I use Cafe Espresso for iced espressos and americanos. I can sort of taste some chocolate and nutty flavors, it does have a bit of a sweet taste, but it seems to have a lingering bitterness. Lavazza In Blue has a cleaner aftertaste and is more chocolatey. In Blue is a bit smoother as well. Illy Is my favorite, clean after taste, not bitter, smoother than both. Plus it seems to have a bit more caffeine kick…but i think that’s just mental or maybe because i drink Illy as a straight shot. If you don’t mind spending the money, I would buy Illy. If you find it ludicrous to spend $12 on 8 ounce coffee, which i doubt since you probably have a nice machine if you are reading this, I would buy Lavazza In Blue (i can get it for $8 at World Market). If you just want a preground espresso to make coffee drinks, or iced drinks and don’t want to spend too much nor buy a burr grinder and grind your own, i would get the Lavazza Cafe Espresso. Still waiting to try Oro and Illy Dark roast. Lavazza Cafe Espresso would get 3.5/5 from me. In Blue would get 4/5, Illy 4.5/5.
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After having Illy at the espresso bars in Italy, well, no other espresso tasted good to me! Illy tastes great made in a good pump espresso machine. It also tastes great made in a steam espresso machine (e.g., a low end Krups) and a Moka (an Italian poor-man’s espresso maker). The rich flavor isn’t burnt tasting like many espresso roasts. Everyone I’ve made an Illy espresso for raves over the flavor compard to espresso from chain coffee stores.
A tip when brewing espresso using a steam espresso machine: Shut off the valve before any steaem comes through the coffee. The high temperature steam will leach unwanted flavors into the coffee.
I used to buy Illy at the local stores, but the prices were over $11 per can, sometimes $12. I was happy to see Amazon start carrying it at an even lower price.
If you can’t find Illy a good runner-up is Lavazza, however, its flavor isn’t as intense as Illy.
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Excellent in its price range – no “burnt” aftertaste,
Illy is an italian brand and I am an italian who came to US 6 years ago: I claim my review does not have any shallow food-nationalism bias, but it might well be that I am influnced by my upbringing.
This coffee is roasted much less than what americans are used to think as the “italian roast”; Illy calls it “medium roast”. To give you a benchmark, it is roasted less than ANY Starbucks coffee I tried so far. The roasting can be seen by comparing the color of the powder. This particular Illy is lighter in color and it is bit reddish – close to the color of cocoa poweder (I mean cocoa powder processed with alkali, of course).
The roasting is key for me because I dislike any coffee which tastes of burnt — Illy does not.
It’s flavor is marked enough to fully come through even when drank with milk in a 50% coffee 50% milk proportion. It actually still tastes of coffee in this proportions.
I use it both with milk for caffe-latte and for espresso.
I prepare it with a stove-top espresso machine, such as Bialetti (also sold on Amazon).
This particular tin I am reviewing (the one with the silver lid) contains ground coffee. It is grounded having in mind stove-top esperesso machine, and electric espresso machines and it is much finer than grounds for dripping machines.
As you probably know, coffee should be drank very soon after roasting. In general this is true. Illy is one of the leaders in vacuum paking, so the shelf-life of its coffee is very long. The metal can is not just for beauty, it does keep the air out better then bags. Still, you don’t want to buy it from a merchant who had it on its shelf for one year.
All in all, there is better coffee around, but I can’t find any better for this price either for delivery on the internet or from small roasters who roast their own coffee in the New Haven area.
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|So far, my favorite pre-ground coffee,
Lavazza Cafe Espresso would get 3.5/5 from me. In Blue would get 4/5, Illy 4.5/5.
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|Illy is by far the best tasting espresso.,
A tip when brewing espresso using a steam espresso machine: Shut off the valve before any steaem comes through the coffee. The high temperature steam will leach unwanted flavors into the coffee.
I used to buy Illy at the local stores, but the prices were over $11 per can, sometimes $12. I was happy to see Amazon start carrying it at an even lower price.
If you can’t find Illy a good runner-up is Lavazza, however, its flavor isn’t as intense as Illy.
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